Any programmers here? I use SQL, Java and python for my current job but I'm thinking of switching to just programming

Any programmers here? I use SQL, Java and python for my current job but I'm thinking of switching to just programming.

What are pros and cons of your work environment?
How many hours do you work?
Do you actually like it?

i work 8 hours a day give or take. c#, sql dev btw.

i actually like it sometimes but fucking hate it other times. we have a horrible codebase that i fight teeth and nail to abandon finally.

designing and coding pristine clean stuff is nice. mucking around in the shit some retards left behind 10 years ago is hell.

I do freelance web development and tech work in general.

I'm my own boss, make decent money and like what I'm doing. Sitting here trying to figure out how to scale up

How did you get to the point where you could make a living freelancing? How many years of proper experience do you need?

Thanks for the post. Maybe most jobs are just shit.

Also, how much do you make?

It's isolating and anti-social. But you can get paid if you're even halfway intelligent.

I do C#, ASP, SQL and general IT for a medium size non software company. The job is kind of boring but I think its better than a full development role at a software company. There isn't terrible deadlines and terrible work hours.

40 hours a week, 145k/year, but i hate working with other people

Honestly, this is what I'm looking for. Right now I have meetings all of the time and constant interruptions.

Are you me?

I work literally same tech stack at an investment firm. Pretty comfy, pay is great for a not-so-demanding role.

pros: I'm on a great team, work with super smart people, some really interesting problems to solve, i like "creating" things

cons: sometimes have to work on legacy codebases which are awful, 8+ hour CI runs which randomly fail because mirrors are offline, etc.

I work 40 hours per week.

I guess I like it. It's way better than any other job I could do at this point in my life. I work for one of the famous multinationals in Silicon Valley. I have 10 years of experience (early 30s) and make a little over $200,000 per year. I'm retiring in two years and living 100% off of passive investment income in Asia.

what did you start out as?

>how much do you make?
around $20k a year

List your passive income sources?

So, I've been doing Java / SQL for a long while now, over 20 years.

Pros: Pay is decent, get to work at home for a couple of days a week, it's sometimes interesting

Cons: Sometimes there are off hour support you need to do, but if you're a contractor, that's limited because no one likes to pay OT. But the biggest con is that it's ultimately a dead-end. You top out on salary after I'd say about 10 years. If you can (and want to) get into management, they'll give you a bit more cash but demand more hours, so it's not as good as it sounds. And, it's hard to keep up with the latest tech.

My hours are 40 a week at this point, but they have been more, maybe up to 50 at certain times.

Do I like it? I used to really like it when things were shiny and new, but now I'm realizing that I'm maxed and am tired of doing this work. So, I'm going to be starting my own biz soon in the hopes of increasing my earnings.

It's a bit scary to do it though, since my job right now is comfy and the pay is good for what I do. But my goal is to to get to 500k+ / yr, so I feel like I have no choice in the matter.

My advice is to assume you'll only be doing the job for 10-15 years and to have an exit strategy at that point. That's really not a long time to get set up financially, so every year has to count.

Thanks, I figured it is almost impossible to stay on the cutting edge but I think that is true for most jobs. Even scarier if you have kids because there is even less time to learn. That seems to be the beginning of the end for most careers.

I dropped out of college (software engineering) to join a startup 10 years ago

ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, a small amount of high risk capital (forex + options). I'm only assuming I'd get a 4% annual return from investments, but even if it's less or I have a few down years, I won't have to go get a job ever again

I use Java+SQL, but I work inside a Java-based system to make the system do what the client wants it to do, so there's a bit of pseudocode-ish programming as well.

Normally I work a regular 40/week, though the ends of projects can jump up into 80 hours without overtime.

Pros? My coworkers are awesome, my bosses are awesome, and I get free living expenses 4 days a week on top of my pay. (That last one has my credit score and skymiles/hotel points/what-have-you through the roof)

Only downsides in my eyes are crunch times (maybe two weeks a year) and lots of time spent sleeping on aircraft. Oh, and sometimes clients ask the impossible and manage to get my bosses to promise it in the contract. That's always fun.

65k/year entry level, currently making 115k/year after two years experience. I'm the lowest paid "lead" developer because I got here about 10 years faster than anyone else.

>mucking around in the shit some retards left behind 10 years ago is hell

God damn it I'm not a dev but I do a lot of SQL coding for my department and this has to be 90% of my problems. It's also a bunch of goddamned bullshit when you have an EVP breathing down your neck for shit who doesn't even know what SQL stands for. God damn it fuck reporting to execs.

What do you suggest for getting deeper into c#? I'm a c++ programmer playing with c# (using monogame) should I look into WPF or .net? Scott Allen has a great .net webapp series on pluralsight I see

I work 8AM-4:30PM but once a week we stay to 5-5:30 for communications meeting. Co-workers are mostly mid 30s people who are still stuck in programming methodology from the early 00s. I'm the youngest one in here at 23 and either get treated like shit or "the young tech guru" even though I hardly know what I'm supposed to be doing here. We maintain a business software that hasn't really seen any innovation or changes in 10 years. We are basically tech support for pissy business customers that need a "bug fix" because they forgot their fucking password. But the pay is decent and I'm not bothered much. Don't want to stay here forever. I don't even think this company will exist 5 years from now its so outdated and full of retards.

I think a lot of companies have that stack, my pay is pretty shit but it's fine for the area I live.

What's your pay / what part of the country do you live

I make 45k and live in vancouver canada.

Software dev for 6 years, $105k in Oregon.

Salaries are lucrative in the US, but vary by region and skillset. It's not impossible to make $200k in the Bay Area.

The type of work/company is what you need to look out for. Anything that is design-related and customer-facing will inevitably come down to minutiae and opinion. Quality software development can be boring and time demanding but stable. Legacy codebases can be messy or severely outdated. Most development jobs are thankless and stressful. On call jobs are the worst, avoid like the plague.

Like any other tech job, you will definitely start to feel the effects of constant meetings, lack of movement, artificial deadlines, and general stress. No woman ever wet her panties hearing about a killer bug fix or scalability. You always have to be on the watch for industry trends as well as economic factors like globalization. Many of these jobs are competitive with absurd interviewing practices. Programming jobs are typically mentally draining.

Yeah learn some wpf and silverlight

Sounds exactly like my job now but I only make about 70k. I'm really just looking for a job where that's not insanely stressful and I can have time to be creative. Right now, I have none of those. I'm happy with 70k if I can just build something enjoyable.

I'm an autistic 20 year old who has limited options, dropped out because no money, can't hold normal job anymore (might even get disability).

If I spend ten hours a day practicing programming concepts can I be hired to be a programmer in a few months?

What languages are a must know for company work, and for independent work?

Being a 30 hour programmer is relaxed enough, I freelance on those additional hours but keep the stable income to not get fucked on those seasons.
I suggest you stick to Python, Java and C#, I'd take enterprise programming any day over the JavaScript abominations I see nowadays.
Oh and fuck every programmer that memes people into mongodb, I've had to unmeme more than a client.

Consulting Software Engineer/Architect. 14 years of experience, billing $120/hr. Full-stack Microsoft platform mostly (C#, ASP.NET MVC, SQL Server/T-SQL, js/jquery/innumerable client side toolsets and frameworks). If you're good at it, you get paid - most of the competition obviously substandard clearly substandard. I always get the gig after a company tries to cheap out for 1-2 years and are no where near completion on a deliverable due in 1-3 months so they're desperate and ready to throw money at it. I bang it out on time, few to no bugs, and complete most change requests in minutes unless they're completely application-altering. They then usually extend my 3-6 month contract to and indefinite amount until I end up getting bored with their business and look to move on.

The best move for newbies is to get a job that will pay you to learn. This means you may get paid like shit for a couple years but they'll give you the leeway to learn, experiment, and hopefully put you around good people that can mentor you. I always tell people your mind needs to work a certain way for you to be good at writing quality software - you should know whether or not you'll be any good at it fairly quickly. The fun may fade a few years in but if you don't enjoy learning about it and doing it the first year, it's not for you.

I've been working from home almost exclusively for 4 years and am surprised to say I hate it. I would always enjoy the flexibility to work from home when needed but it's too isolating. When I get going I forget about the world and next thing I know it'll be 9 PM and I just worked a 13 hour day, only standing up to go to the bathroom maybe twice and getting a bite to eat for lunch. Probably wouldn't be so bad for something with roommates or a family at home but I live alone.